Visiting Our Lady Of Manaoag On A Maundy Thursday

Holy Week has been very traditional when I was young. When I was a kid it was an opportunity for my family along with our relatives to go to the different beaches in the Philippines. An occasional stay at home for the Holy Week to do Visita Iglesia, witness Passion Of Christ and Way of The Cross was also part of our tradition. But now that I have a family of my own, Holy Week has been our time to escape somewhere where we can relax and at the same time be thankful and reflect.

This year we chose to go to Baguio, the last time I was there with my husband we were then boyfriend-girlfriend back in 2007. Now we I was quite excited to go back there given it’s Gabbie’s first time in Baguio. Although it was a major hassle to leave Manila on that Maundy Thursday because it was the first time we ever experienced such a horrible traffic which made our supposed 5-hour trip into almost 10 hours, it was still a good one. We made sure to pass by Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan before we head over to Baguio.

We saw a group doing their penance through the Way Of The Cross.

Our Lady Of Manaoag is attributed as “the patroness of the sick, the helpless and the needy”.

The last time I was here, I was so young around 8 years old maybe?

Tradition holds the town itself was born from St Mary’s call or “taoag” to the young man. The term manaoag was derived from this, and means “She Calls”

Holy water which you can get for free as long as you have a container to put it, note that it’s not potable.

Say a prayer and light a candle.

You can actually get a closer look at the mantle, you can even touch it from the back but because the line was pretty long and it was scorching hot that day that we weren’t able to do so.

The stair leading towards the back of the altar, line grew longer this is just the beginning of it.

Our Lady of Manaoag wood image carved on a big tree trunk.

Funny how the last time I was here I was just a kid praying for my family’s safety & protection. Then after almost two decades I come back saying the same prayer but this time as a wife and a mom to my own family.